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Total Recalls in Toyland or Mattel’s Hell

Polly Pocket. Doggie Day Care. Barbie and Tanner. Batman. No longer just the kid-friendly names of innocent toys; instead, they’ve become the labels of dangerous Made-in-China goods that made headlines around the world this week.

Mattel Recalls Chinese Toys, Second Time in Two Weeks
Bloomberg
By Heather Burke

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — Mattel Inc., the world’s biggest toymaker, is recalling Chinese-made products for the second time in two weeks on concerns that children will swallow magnets attached to the toys.

The recall includes 18.2 million Barbie, Polly Pocket, Batman and other toys with magnets, the El Segundo, California- based company today in a statement. Mattel also removed 436,000 die-cast vehicles with lead paint.

Mattel Inc.’s official announcements of Tuesday’s recalls show 78 models that pose hazardous threats. The full list of toy recalls from earlier this month included playtime favorites like Elmo’s Rock & Roll Guitar and Dora’s Talking House.

But even more tragic than toxic toys is news of a suicide…

Owner of Chinese Toy Factory Commits Suicide
New York Times
By David Barboza

SHANGHAI, Aug. 13 — The head of a Chinese company that was behind the recall this month of about a million Mattel toys committed suicide over the weekend, China’s state-controlled news media reported Monday.

Zhang Shuhong, a Hong Kong businessman and owner of Lee Der Industrial, a company that made toys for Mattel for 15 years, hanged himself in a company warehouse in Foshan, in southern China, The Southern Metropolis Daily said Monday.

The New York Times goes on to report that this string of recalls has created a “public relations disaster” for China. “Experts here say many Chinese factory owners — often under intense pressure to lower production costs — cut corners in making products and regularly use cheap and illegal substitutes,” the reporter writes. “And indeed, in several of the recalls involving China this year, the government says companies intentionally used cheap or illegal substitutes.”

But it’s not like the Chinese government isn’t doing anything about the hazardous outcomes of the country’s toy manufacturing process. It seems to me that the government is responsible enough to realize that it’s not worth it to superficially cover up its problems. Real action is needed.

According to the New York Times article, regulators in Beijing revoked the export licenses of Lee Der Industrial, which manufactures “Sesame Street” toys under the Fisher-Price brand name, and Hansheng Wood Products, maker of “Thomas & Friends” toy railway sets–both companies issued recalls because their products were coated with lead paint.

Not all responsibility rests on China. This isn’t just a one-way street. You have to ask, why are Chinese companies cutting corners anyway? What’s the deal with the U.S. toymakers who are supposed to be regulating their business? Aren’t they cutting corners, too? And who’s idea was it to design children’s toys with magnets, anyway? Seems like a major design flaw to me.

I like what ABC News has to say about this…

Manfacturers Share the Blame for Product Recalls
ABC News
By William Marra and Kara Nesburg
Aug. 14, 2007

The tainted products may be manufactured in China, but the American companies whose brands they carry share much of the blame, according to people who work in China and do business there. These observers say for American companies it’s all about cutting costs, which in many cases means cutting corners and standards.

Government-imposed manufacturing standards are virtually nonexistent in China; therefore the onus falls on Western companies. So if a Western company wants high standards it can pay for them. If it wants to compromise quality, as manufacturers of low-cost products sometimes do, that is entirely possible as well.

Check out what journalist and long-time China observer James Fallows has to say: “I lay a lot of responsibility at the hands of American purchasing companies.”

And Gordon McBean of Roth Capital: “”Responsibility belongs to the end seller of the product, the distributor in the U.S. The guys in the U.S. can do a lot about controlling quality.”

Wait, what’s that you say? Who is responsible?

“Mattel, whose name is on these toys, certainly is responsible for the things that go out and are sold under its name,” said William Kirby, a historian of modern China at Harvard. “To be shocked about conditions in Chinese factories after more than a decade of close cooperation between Chinese toy manufacturers and American distributors is not terribly believable.”

What do you think? Who’s to blame, if anyone at all? And what should we all be doing to be more responsible? Please weigh in on the topic with your comments below.

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For more insight:

What Went Wrong at Mattel
BusinessWeek
by Christopher Palmeri
August 14, 2007

Analysis: how toy recall affects Brand China
Times Online
By Jane Macartney
August 14, 2007

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For a photo gallery of recalled products from China, click here. Or here.

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And yet another recall story for the books:

Chinese Toothpaste for Hotels Is Recalled Worldwide
Bloomberg
By Emily Brown

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — Chinese toothpaste distributed to hotels worldwide by a U.S. company has been recalled because it may contain a chemical used in antifreeze, adding to recent cases of unsafe food and drug imports.

The substance, mixed with cough syrup, was responsible for more than 40 deaths in Panama beginning in September 2006, according to the FDA Web site. While Chinese regulators initially said the amounts of the chemical ingested in toothpaste were harmless, China banned its use on June 11, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

[tags]China, toys, recall, product safety, Mattel, Zhang Shuhong[/tags]

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